EP #110- Why I'm Intentionally Resting & Other Life Updates

[music] Welcome back to another episode of Everyday Endorphins, a mental health podcast focused on the importance of finding joy and happiness in daily living. I'm your host, Stella Stepnopolis, and this week I am switching things up a little bit, but before we dive into why I have a brief message from some of my sponsors. What makes this week's podcast different is that I'm actually recording a solo episode for the first time. And the reason that I wanted to record a solo episode is that I have some updates to share. If you're a listener and you come back every week, thank you for being here, thank you for following along with the podcast. And if you're a new listener, I'm so excited for you to be here, to tune into the show, join the community, and hopefully learn a little bit about what can bring people happiness. So the big update that I wanted to share is that I will be taking a little bit of a break from the podcast, which makes me feel really sad in a way because I love doing this, and I'll get into a bit more why I'm taking a break later. But if you're new here, and this is the first time you're listening to Everyday Endorphins, the good news is that there are a ton of episodes on the show that you can scroll through and choose what you want to listen to, who you want to learn from. But if you are a regular listener, and you've followed along for a while, I am just releasing this episode so that you are not alarmed and are like, where did it stop? And go, why did you drop off the face of the earth? But I'm not going anywhere. I'll still be here just not releasing interviews at the moment. And I'll get into the reasons as to why I'm taking a break. But what I wanted to really focus on during this episode is the topic of intentional rest, which is something I've been thinking a lot about recently. Been talking a lot about this to my friends, to my family. It's hard for me to rest with intention, because I think it is very much in the nature of my personality to be on overdrive, to constantly be doing something. I've talked a bit about this in previous episodes with my guests. It's very hard for me to just take a step back and rest. Maybe that's how I was raised, the product of my environment, the people around me, but also growing up in a place like New York. It's incredibly fast-paced. So the energy here is that everyone is always go-go-go. And I think that's just been ingrained into my personality, the way I work, the way I socialize, the way I operate, and the way I think. So going back to this idea of intentional rest, what is it? I think it's a way of seeing rest as something that is actually beneficial for you and productive, and not seeing rest as something that's being lazy or unproductive, but rather something that is necessary for you to move forward in life. And what I mean by that is taking a step back so that you can clarify your path forward. The word intention is super important here because when you're putting intention towards something, you're being thoughtful about it. You're not just doing it for the sake of doing it. So I think when we tend to rest, or if we're just taking a break, it's easy to see that as laziness, just putting your feet up on the couch, watching TV, not really doing anything. But there's a difference here when there's an intention behind it. So think about it into scenarios. Scenario A, you're sitting watching TV out of boredom with your life. You don't have passions, you don't have hobbies, you have dissatisfaction in your job, maybe you're isolating. This scenario is really pointing towards not a productive rest because you're doing these actions, perhaps out of a fear or dissatisfaction with your current state in your life. And you might be listening and thinking, okay, you know, the person in this scenario, if they're really just like veging on their couch, watching TV all day, they're just not being productive and they're super lazy. And it reminds me of an interview that I actually did with a researcher on procrastination. And something that I learned in that podcast is that procrastination is actually not about laziness, but rather it's about a failure to regulate your own emotions. So this scenario maybe falls more under the bucket of procrastinating, perhaps. And that signals to a deeper problem, which is the failure to regulate your emotions, which is an entirely separate topic. If you're interested in learning more about that, I definitely would go stream that podcast. It was a really incredible conversation. But if you think about scenario B, again, watching TV, the intention though in this scenario, maybe to just disconnect or to spend quality time with a friend or a family member or loved one by doing something that you both enjoy together, maybe it's a rainy day and you're watching your favorite movie. That is not being lazy. That is actually a form of productive rest because in a way, it's nourishing you. It's recharging you. And it's so nice to just take a break and take a step back. So notice how these two scenarios from an objective point of view, it's the same behavior. Both scenarios are sitting back and watching TV. But the intention in the circumstance around scenario A versus B are entirely different. And what was difficult for me within the past year is that I would equate both scenarios. Like I would see both of them as the same. And I would see just watching TV as a waste of time. And over the past few months, I've tried to kind of just take a step back and re-incorporate some of the things that I used to do when I just had more of that time to do it. And instead of making myself feel guilty about resting, I'm actually trying to start to embrace it. What a concept. So all this goes to say that this is the perspective that I've started to adopt on rest and how to do it intentionally. And it's something that I wanted to share here because it really does tie back into again why I'm taking a break from releasing some episodes right now. I bring this up because I think a lot of my listeners share in this anxiety or stress around how we think about rest. A lot of you are listening from urban areas. I'm based in New York. So for my New York listeners, I think you can really resonate with this feeling the need to be constantly doing something. So I'm sharing this to just let this be a reminder that it's okay to take a step back and rest. And I wanted to share this graphic that I saw posted on Instagram actually. From a former podcast guest of mine, her name's Stephanie Harrison and she's the founder of The New Happy, which is a media company that shares science-backed research on how to actually become happier. And the post that I found that she shared was really incredible, really resonated with me because it was listing out things that you need to do in order to accomplish certain states. So for example, she writes to be energetic, rest, to be productive, take breaks, to be innovative, play, to be resilient, lean on others, to be hopeful, acknowledge pain, to be disciplined, be kind to yourself, to be successful, follow your heart, to be loved, focus on loving, to be happy, help others be happy. And I love the way that she presented this because they're almost paradoxes in a way, to be energetic, rest, like that doesn't add up, to be productive, take breaks, what? You should be actively doing things to quote unquote be productive. To be loved, focus on loving, these feel like completely contradictory statements. The more I thought about it, the more I realized how true it is and how it really ties into what I've just been sharing here, to be energetic, rest. Think about burnout, go, go, go, go constantly all the time. You reach a point where you plateau and you're exhausted and you lose meaning and motivation and joy from what you're doing. So truly to be energetic, to be excited, to be happy, to be focused, you need to take a step back and you need to rest. So I love the way that she frames this and provides her perspective. So tying this back into I am taking a break for the podcast. I love what I'm doing here. I love getting to interview people and I love building a community, hosting events in New York City that are focused on wellness and happiness and bringing people together to spark their own endorphins. Really brings me joy to to Stephanie's last point to be happy, help others be happy. I feel like I've been helping others be happy, either in a micro or macro scale, depending on who this is hitting and that really brings me joy. But right now, I think to continue to bring myself some joy and to figure out how I want to continue to do that, I need to take a step back. So for the next few months, everyday endorphins is going to be on a brief pause, at least as far as the podcast interviews. And for those of you who have been actively tuning in, thank you so much for being here. And for new listeners, thank you for joining. And I hope that you can scroll through the repertoire of content that's up here and continue to learn and continue to grow. So you may be thinking, okay, Stella, you're talking about productive rest, intentional rest, but you also talked about how you're always moving at a million miles an hour. So what will you actually be doing during your time off? Well, I am so excited to bring back some of my personal passions and interests outside of just interviewing and podcasting. I am signing up for a writing class. I used to be creative writing minor in college. And I am so excited to get back into writing because it's one of the most cathartic things you can do and It brings me a ton of joy like it really brings me a lot of endorphins We're also moving into the summer. I'm excited to be outside to be in the sun and to have longer days I'm excited to travel and to focus more on teaching yoga and teaching now not only with core power, but also equinox So anyone who's based in New York come to one of my classes Send me a DM and I'll send you my schedule But all of this goes to say that during this time of rest There is importance to put intentionality behind it and I'm really looking forward to reintegrating all of these different activities and things into my life that I feel like I've had to put on the back burner for some time So these are my future endorphins and some things that I am looking forward to personally If you resonate with anything that I've shared throughout this interview know that first of all you're not alone and feeling Unsettled by the concept of taking a break hopefully you learned something on how to Integrate intentional rest into your life into your routine and Are experiencing some sort of perspective shift on the value of resting in life because I think it really is something that's necessary I'm excited to put some of this into practice and I hope that everyone out there listening also can implement some of this as well Thank you all for tuning in whether you're new here or you've been a listener since day one I am so excited to have you here and Excited to also see how everyday endorphins will continue to evolve you can stay plugged in through the podcast through following on Instagram at Everyday endorphins on tick-tock for some more of my stream of consciousness If you've any thoughts or you liked this episode or you want to hear more solo episodes in the future Send me a DM. I always love to hear from you guys and in the meantime Keep spreading endorphins and reminder to Focus on the things in life that truly do bring you joy Thanks for listening to this episode of everyday endorphins if you liked what you heard make sure to like, rate and review this podcast on whichever platform you prefer You can also follow along the everyday endorphins Instagram account to stay up to date with episodes, future events and all things related to mental health Well-being and happiness. Don't forget to keep spreading endorphins and find things in life that bring you joy every day Until next time [Music]